Horizontal/faint color lines through 8mm video - Handycam CCD-TR93

[krmtichell]

I am attempting to transfer some 8mm tapes that were shot on a Handycam CCD-TR93. The original camera no longer works, so I purchased another one.
On this new unit, i am getting horizontal lines through the video. It appears on all tapes i put in it, regardless of what unit they were recorded on.

The tapes don't have these lines when played back on my other camcorder, a late model with mono audio, so i can't use it to transfer these unfortunately. There appears to be some halo-ing type effect going on that isn't present on the TR93.

Does anyone know if this is just a head calibration issue, or if it's something else? The composite out is also pretty dark, in my opinion.
I do still have the broken camera these were shot on, if getting that repaired is the better option.

Attached are photos of a couple of the best examples i could capture of the issue.


[Attachment 73714 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 73715 - Click to enlarge]

[Bwaak]

These are two independent fields of an interlaced frame weaved into one progressive-scan frame. Read up on deinterlacing.

Basically, you have two choices:

* preserve frame rate, which means halving image rate.
* double frame rate, which means preserving image rate.

The former one used to be popular for the Internet uploads. The latter one is what every TV set does. Youtube supports 50p/60p since 2014.

[krmtichell]

Though these screenshots are not deinterlaced, that is not the problem - the same footage deinterlaced still has the issue.
It is definitely something with the camera, I transfer and process analog video regularly and don't have this issue with any of my other playback equipment.

[davexnet]

Post a short video sample from your capture that exhibits the issue

[dellsam34]

These are chroma signal issues, several reasons, Low budget recording camera used, low quality tape used, aging of the tape, Use better playback Hi8 camcorder with line TBC/DNR.

[krmtichell]

These are chroma signal issues, several reasons, Low budget recording camera used, low quality tape used, aging of the tape, Use better playback Hi8 camcorder with line TBC/DNR.

This makes sense - though the tapes themselves I don't think are part of the problem - they were likely never played more than once, if ever, after being recorded, and they were all stored under optimal conditions.

Is this something that can be adjusted at all on the camera, even in hassle-some ways?

Are there any recommended camcorders/standalone decks for digitization? Almost all of the tapes I need to transfer have stereo audio, which is important to me to keep intact.

[dellsam34]

It's hard to tell without testing with another camcorder if the problem is tape related or camera related. Any Hi8 camcorder or D8 camcorder with analog playback built in TBC with S-Video out and audio stereo out.